Munnar, Kerala
Bird of the Day: Malabar Whistling Thrush
Munnar, Kerala
If You Happen To Be In Amsterdam
Most of our followers know we love coffee. We love how it grows. We love how it tastes. We love the settings where we can drink it. Which makes it all the more unfortunate that we’re in India and not in Amsterdam this weekend to experience Coffee Week NL 2014.
The festival collaboration with the Allegra Foundation makes participation all the more enticing:
50% of all ticket sales to The Amsterdam Coffee Festival will go towards Project Waterfall, the charitable components of NL Coffee Week. Continue reading
Nature Has The Long View
When you love what you do, the hope is that you will do it indefinitely. E.O. Wilson shows little sign of slowing down any time soon, and his new book is the best evidence to date. Not exactly light weekend reading, nor summer beach fare, but from the sound of this review, worth the effort:
LOOKING FOR ETERNITY? LOOK TO NATURE
A Review of “A Window on Eternity” by E.O. Wilson
By Bill Chameides
To say that E.O. Wilson, arguably the greatest living biologist, is prolific is a bit of an understatement. At 84, Wilson continues to churn out books at a rate of one to two each year. Yesterday, Earth Day 2014, marks the release of his latest book, A Window on Eternity: A Biologist’s Walk Through Gorongosa National Park (Simon and Schuster), and a DVD companion titled “The Guide.” Continue reading
Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary – Kerala
Photo Credits: Surus
Parambikulam is located in the Palakkat district of Kerala. It is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots that supports diverse types of habitat and wildlife. Considering its biological richness, abundance of wildlife and scenic beauty, the Sanctuary is one of the most attractive national parks in the entire stretch of the Western Ghats. Continue reading
In With Flynn
Another look at Flynn, this one in the Sunday Magazine of the New York Times some months ago (click above for the video and below for the story):
MAGAZINE
The Kid’s Table
Flynn McGarry wants to open the best restaurant in the world. So what if he’s only 15?
Bird of the Day: Greater Flamingos (Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat)
Sapthaha Yagnam – Temple Festival
Photo credits: Ramesh Kidangoo
Sapthaha Yagnam is among eighteen ancient puranas (stories) that are still told today, and one of the most important in the Srimat Bhagavatha Purana (Holy Book of Hindu), which deals with Sri Krishna. Sri Krishna temples host a ritualistic event of intense tradition in which this text is read. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Scarlet Minivet, male feeding female (Saavandurga, Karnataka)
Travel, Stimulation, Writing
In a post on the New Yorker website just now we discovered that last August we had neglected to read what we surely would have passed along here, an article that fits our blog’s themes well. George Prochnik had us with the first sentence:
Travel is my favorite stimulant, and while I was writing “ The Impossible Exile,” a portrait of the Viennese author Stefan Zweig, hunting-and-gathering expeditions to Zweig’s far-flung haunts felt imperative. Zweig was born in Vienna in 1881, but he became one of the most representative Viennese writers largely in absentia—idealizing the city’s cosmopolitanism while doing his best to embody it by making himself at home all across Europe. After the First World War, he set up his primary residence in Salzburg, but for large parts of the following years he was on the move—writing, in hotels, the short stories, essays, and biographies for which he became famous Continue reading
Dutch Cemetery – Cochin
Photo credit: Ramesh Kidangoor
The Dutch cemetery in Fort Kochi, which is about 290 years old, is an authentic record of hundreds of Europeans — despite its name both Dutch and English — who arrived in India to expand their colonial empire. It is considered the oldest European cemetery in India. Constructed in 1724, the cemetery has over a hundred tombs.
Jack Fruit, Again
Jackfruits grow on the branches and trunks of tall trees. You don’t wait to harvest until they drop of their own accord — by that time, they’d be overripe. iStockphoto
We recently started noticing interest in our hometown fruit, and here is some more courtesy of the Salt program on National Public Radio (USA):
It’s not every fruit that gets its own international symposium.
Then again, the jackfruit is not your typical fruit. It’s got a distinctive, musky smell, and a flavor that some describe as like Juicy Fruit gum.
It is the largest tree fruit in the world, capable of reaching 100 pounds. And it grows on the branches — and the trunks — of trees that can reach 30, 40, 50 feet. (Trunk-growing is a good thing because it reduces the odds of a jackfruit bopping you on the head.) Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Siberian Rubythroat
Bharatpur, Rajasthan
Building An Invasivore Economy
Since Phil first started posting his series on possible solutions to invasive species last year, in conjunction with the theme of citizen science that Seth has been writing about for the last couple years, we have been on the look out for citizen solutions to environmental challenges–stories that match our interest in entrepreneurial conservation. Phil’s series suggests that citizen science may be the best path to building what might be called an invasivore economy. As it happens, just after his first couple posts there was an article in Conservation that dealt with this very issue:
SEND IN THE INVASIVORES
Recipes for Ecosystem Recovery By Sarah DeWeerdt
“We’re trying to be unsustainable,” says University of Vermont conservation biologist Joe Roman. And he says it with glee. Roman runs www.eattheinvaders.org, a compendium of invasive species recipes. He is one of a growing number of people who advocate controlling invasives by eating them. Instead of relying on toxic pesticides, expensive eradication campaigns, or risky introductions of biological control agents, “why not use our own appetites to good advantage?” he suggests.
Flavours Of Kerala – Ela Ada
Photo credits: Jithin
Ela ada is an authentic recipe of Kerala cuisine. A mixture of grated coconut, sugar and cardamom is layered inside a rice flour batter and wrapped in banana leaf and steamed. It is served as evening snack. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Pelagic and Red-faced Cormorants (Homer, Alaska)
Bedeviling Bovine Biproducts
Roberta Kwok, over at Conservation, shares a new view on the humble cow:
COWS VS. COAL
To reduce emissions, the usual thinking goes, we should promote alternative energy and declare war on coal. But researchers argue that policymakers are ignoring a crucial climate threat: cows. Continue reading
Watersports In The Sand
Something about the sand, and the artists, down under…we give thanks to the New Zealand Herald for this story which, among other possible interpretations, demonstrates that much a great time can be had with much lower carbon footprint while engaging in sport at the beach, and on better yet it is a collaborative effort among several artists:
A group of imaginative artists has shown magic can be made from a few simple lines in the sand. Continue reading
Lalbagh Botanical Gardens – Bangalore, Karnataka
Photo Credits: Dileep Kumar
Lalbagh Botanical Gardens is situated in the heart of Bangalore, the capital city of Karnataka State. Hyder Ali, the sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore commissioned the gardens 1760, but his famous son, Tipu Sulthan, saw to its completion, importing rare and exotic trees and plants from places as far flung as Afghanistan and France. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Jungle Fowl
Male – Thattekad, Kerala
Coconut Palm Leaf Roofing
Photo credits: Shymon
In rural communities around the world it’s a common sight to see structures made from 100% natural and sustainable materials, and Kerala is no exception, especially in the Alappuzha district. In thatched homes the roof and walls are made out of coconut leaves. Continue reading
Organikos 